Purdue Recruiting: Nic Caraway Commits!

Purdue football recruiting is heating up with the weather. Nic Caraway, a 3*(85) 6’3”, 240 pound defensive end/linebacker out of Bryan, Texas (right next to College Station) gave his verbal commitment to the 2022 recruiting class today.

In the 2020 high school season, Caraway recorded 78 tackles, including 26 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles, playing mainly as an inside linebacker. He was a first-team selection for the Texas District 12-6A team at linebacker (no small accomplishment). He currently holds offers from Marshall, Memphis, New Mexico, Colorado State and Western Kentucky. The Boilermakers biggest challenger (to date) for his services came from SMU, where he was (probably still is) considered a priority recruit. He visited Purdue on June 4th, followed by a June 10th trip to Dallas to check out SMU.

What He Brings to the Table

He’s a big, strong dude with solid lateral quickness and closing burst. He has a nose for the football and is able to work through traffic with his eyes and football to find and dispatch the ball carrier.

His game is reminiscent of current Boilermaker Damarcus Mitchell and I think he could play a similar role in Coach Lambert’s defense. He’s a DE/LB hybrid who can roam around the defensive line, find favorable matchups and wreak havoc in the backfield. In my opinion, this is the premier position in Purdue’s new defense, and Purdue is looking to stock up on players capable of filling the role. He’ll need to add a little weight, but with Mitchell graduating after this season, he’ll step into a wide open competition in 2021.

What’s Next?

Defense

Purdue has added 2 players in the last 2 days, after a 6 month recruiting dry spell. Coach Hagan has the Boilermakers back in the hunt for Joe Strickland after his June 4th visit, but he visited Penn State on the 11th and is set to visit Stanford on June 18th and Indiana on the 25th for his 4th visit. I wouldn’t anticipate anything from Strickland until after the Indiana visit, and he still has a 5th visit in his back pocket.

Enyce Sledge is a true nose tackle (6’3”, 310) out of Louisiana that Purdue had on Campus last weekend, and as of now, it appears to be a fight between the Boilermakers and the Baylor Bears for his services. He has a visit scheduled to Baylor on June 25th and could pull the trigger in early July, but he will have 3 more official visits as well, and I see him as a guy who could blow up late. He’s another guy Mark Hagan gives Purdue a good shot to land.

Offense

It’s tough to pin Purdue’s recruiting board on offense at the moment. They dropped an offer on Cross Watson on June 12th and he committed on June 12th. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next commit on offense is similar. I don’t see many players on what I assume is Purdue’s current recruiting board committing anytime in the near future.